Sue Lockyer

Excerpted from her blog with permission:

...In high school I continued my path of bizarreness by shunning and sneering on anyone who I considered "normal", ie. cheerleaders, school govt. people...etc. I became a stoner, an outcast. I globalized my antipathy for all things mainstream when I spent a summer in rural Mexico, realizing that my Walnut Creek (and probably all of America) world was incredibly privileged and ignorant of how others lived. Cut me a little slack here, I was sixteen and seventeen and thought that I knew what was right, and that everyone else was wrong. Doesn't everyone feel that way at that age?

In college I mostly put my head down, studied and avoided all the partying and sleeping around that my private Catholic school peers indulged in. OK, I partied a little. Met my hubby, became a democrat and swore that I would never take a job that was "just a cog in a wheel". Instead, after college I took crummy, low paying jobs in nonprofits which I mostly hated.

When motherhood came along, once again I chose my own path - homebirth. I know, I know, I've heard all the arguments against it. But I felt safer at home. So I did it - three times. Yep, three home births all safe and sound. That decision is probably one of the best ones I made in my whole life. I'm so glad I didn't do what everyone else was doing - going into the hospital, taking pitocin and epidurals and ending up with a C-section - yuck. (no offense if you did it that way).

When my son was four and I started thinking about sending him to kindergarden, I started to feel sick in my gut, my intuition. I had heard about homeschooling from my sister-in-law and when I tried that on for size I got all excited. Long story short, I am now homeschooling all three of my kids.

"Oh, I could NEVER do that! You must be so patient!" is the most common reaction I get when someone learns that I homeschool. Really, I'm not known for my patience. I just look at educating my kids like it's my career. My job. And I do the best I can because I want to. But, one again, it places me out of the mainstream.

And now? Let's see....we don't have TV, I read the Bible to my kids (among other things!), I don't have cool clothes, and probably craziest of all I am totally into Ron Paul. I am still wierd!

Do I do anything that is normal? Let me think....I wear jeans - that's pretty common, my kids take swim lessons, my husband is a techie, I like to eat, we live in a house..........oh! I color my hair (for some unknown reason my hair turned dark when I had kids). I think most ladies my age do that.

Sometimes it is lonely to not be a part of the crowd. When people make American Idol references and look at my like I'm crazy when I say, "What is that?", when folks at a party do endless shots of tequila (I'll have my wine, thanks), when people talk about our government as if it has the right to do everything it does....well, I just don't fit in.

But I suppose the alternative is not to do what I think is right. No can do. So....

¡Vive le difference!

Sue in 1985

and below, Sue in 2008 (visiting New York)

email: mamasue AT sonic.net